Just as oil and gas wealth were the pillars of Col. Muammar Gaddafi’s brutal rentier state, they are at the heart of the civil conflict raging in Libya – demonstrated recently by an escalating battle over storage depots and lifting ports in the country’s oil-rich East, and rumors of an imminent …
UNSMIL chief Bernardino Leon has admitted that he is running out of ideas and Libya is running out of time to find a negotiated end to violence. He has warned that the time may be approaching when “The international community will have to use more stick and less carrot”.
The United States Tuesday condemned a strike by Libyan aircraft that bombed an oil tanker off the Islamist-held port of Derna, killing two crew members.
Thirteen Egyptian Christians seized in Sirte are now in the hands of the local council and being protected by the local Ferjan tribe. They were abducted two days ago by unknown gunmen.
Libya National Army planes again attacked Misrata this morning. They also attacked targets at Al-Agarbiya near Al-Jmail in the west of the country.
The Egyptian Foreign Ministry has urged Egyptians living and working in Libya to stay indoors and take extra precautions in the aftermath of the last week’s abductions of Egyptian Coptic Christians in Sirte. However, it is also looking at ways that Egyptians can leave the country.
An Iraqi professor Iraqi at the University of Sirte was kidnapped this morning. His three sons were also seized from their home in the town with him.
Army General David Rodriguez says Isil has set up training camps in eastern Libya, intensifying fears jihadists are extending their reach through North Africa.
Forces loyal to Libya’s internationally recognized government on Saturday staged air strikes on the commercial port of Misrata, a western city allied to a group that holds the capital Tripoli, both sides said.
Country is riven by violence amid growing extremist threats some three years after the removal of Muammar Gaddafi in a popular uprising.
